What is AR?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a new technology which allows an interaction between the real world and digital content. With AR, users can project and see digital objects, images or videos in the real world environment. Augmented Reality (AR) is actually an interactive experience of a real-world environment whereby the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory. Augmented reality is related to two largely synonymous terms: mixed reality and computer-mediated reality.

The overlaid sensory information can be constructive (i.e. additive to the natural environment) or destructive (i.e. masking of the natural environment) and is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real environment. In this way, augmented reality alters one’s ongoing perception of a real world environment, whereas virtual reality completely replaces the user’s real world environment with a simulated one.